Crusade
by Audio Pineapple
Summary: After Ethan kills Charlie Jack mounts his army.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters and I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form with anyone who does.

"Jack, please stop! He's dead!" Jack was barely able to hear what Kate was saying, not wanting to believe that it was true. But Charlie had been breathless for too long and Jack was unable to fix that.

He leaned back onto his haunches, feeling a hard lump forming in his throat as Kate sobbed uncontrollably near him. They stayed there for a couple of minutes, Jack trying to clear the fog that was infecting his mind. When it had cleared he tore his gaze from Charlie to focus upon Kate. "I'm going to kill him."

"Jack…" Kate's voice was childish, filled with a need for comfort Jack knew he could not fulfil. There was bigger things to focus on now, getting revenge for Charlie, getting revenge against Ethan.

Walking back to the caves Jack tried to ignore Kate. She trudged along behind him, occasionally sniffling or wiping at her eyes to halt the tears that threatened to spring forward again. They turned the final corner to see the majority of the camp staring at them. He didn't know how to react to them and ducked his head, trying to avoid the questioning glances and walked back over to Sayid, crouching down and attempting to busy himself with patching up his leg.

"What happened? Where are Charlie and Claire?" Sayid voice was blunt but to Jack's ears it felt brutal. He shook his head as a reply. "You could not find them?" He shook his head again. "Jack! Answer my questions!" There was a hint of fear in Sayid's voice now and Jack knew he had to say something about what had happened.

He put his professional voice on, the 'sympathetic yet detached' one that he had used in the hospital to tell someone that their loved one had died on the table. "Claire's still missing. We found Charlie but he was dead when I got there. I couldn't save him." Jack saw fear and shock flicker through Sayid's eyes before being replaced with rage and he watched as he tried to stand up. "You need to sit back down; your leg is too sore."

"No!" Sayid's voice was loud enough that the other castaways stopped to stare at them. "I am not going to sit down and let what happened to Charlie happen to Claire!"

Jack heard the whispers starting, people trying to get answers out of each other. He tenderly laid a hand onto Sayid's shoulder, forcing him to sit down before walking over to Kate, lowering his head to her level to speak quietly.

"I need you to go down to the beach, tell everyone what has happened."

"Jack…"

"Kate! Go." She left and Jack stood to full height again, instantly commanding the attention of the crowd. "Out in the jungle we came across two trails. Boone and Locke followed one, while me and Kate went down the other." He paused for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he should tell them that he ran into Ethan, say that he ignored the warning and that Charlie paid the price for it. But he couldn't say it, everyone would blame him and he couldn't deal with that right now. "We found Charlie hung from a tree, we tried to revive him but it was too late. He died. Ethan killed him."

The crowd took a collective gasp of shock before a ripple of panic spread through them.

"Don't panic. We're safe. He isn't going to hurt anyone else, I promise. And we are going to find him and make him pay for what he has done."

Jack felt the anger start to burn inside him. He was going to find Ethan, he was going to hurt him and he was going to kill him and nobody was going to stop him from doing it.


	2. Chapter 2

Sawyer shifted uncomfortably inside his tent. His arm still hurt, when Jack returned successfully from his rescue mission he would get up and get some more painkillers.

His plans seemed ruined when he glanced outside his tent to see what the sudden commotion was. What he saw was Kate rushing onto the beach. He pushed through the gathering crowd to see her and felt the wind knocked out of him as she flung herself into him, her arms gripped around his waist, her head buried against his chest, tears soaking into his shirt.

He considered pulling back, he had never been comfortable comforting women, that had always been part of his job and he didn't want to see Kate as a con.

"What's wrong?" She shook her head and clutched at him further. "Kate," he pulled her head gently back, "what is it?"

"Charlie… he's dead." Sawyer tensed, he felt worried that he didn't care very much. He was sad, but he didn't feel like crying, or even gasping alongside everyone else.

Kate had buried herself against him again and he suddenly felt suffocated. He was the centre of the group, on show, and he didn't want them to find out how little emotion he was feeling. He patted her on the back and tugged away, melding into the crowd wall around Kate.

"What happened to him?" Everyone shot a glance at the person who had dared to speak before looking back at Kate with expectant glances.

She shuffled a bit, looking down at her feet and wiping the remains of her tears away with the palm of her hand. "Ethan hung him. Me and Jack got there too late. We couldn't find Claire."

"What about Boone?" Shannon had managed to push herself to the inner ring of the circle.

"What?" Kate looked confused by the question before she remembered. "I don't know where Boone or Locke are."

"What the hell do you mean you don't know?"

Kate looked at Shannon and turned away again. She was starting to shiver as her words came out shakily. "There were two trails. Boone and Locke went down another one from us. I haven't seen them since."

"Then why are you here? You should be looking for him!"

Sawyer pulled himself out of the wall and walked over to Kate, wrapping one arm around her waist and another against the back of her head, letting her fall against him. He grimaced and tensed against her touch but he wasn't sure if she had felt it or not. He looked over her shoulder at Shannon. "She doesn't need the attitude right now Princess. I'm sure he's fine. After all, he's got Master Hunter with him."

Kate pulled her head back and smiled at Sawyer before turning back to the group. Sawyer disentangled himself and went back to his tent, watching the crowd thin and eventually disperse altogether before Kate walked over to him.

She crouched down on her haunches in front of him. "Thanks for helping with Shannon."

Sawyer looked away from her, he felt like he had to put a distance between them again, he'd got too close to her because he had felt like he had to protect her, but he couldn't let her think that she had power over him. "Whatever, I would have thought that a tough girl like you could have managed to deal with her." He smirked, "guess I was wrong."

"Yeah…" She sighed. "Jack is going to go after Ethan; I think he's going to build an army up at the caves."

"How nice for him."

She stood up, "come on then."

"Come on then what?"

"To the caves."

"Why would I be going to the caves then?"

"To help Jack; to go after Ethan and save Claire and get revenge for Charlie."

He laughed, "what on earth made you think that I would want to do any of that?" Kate's face darkened before she stormed off.

Sawyer closed his eyes and lay down, trying to decide what he should do. All of his instincts were screaming at him that it was a bad idea but he couldn't shake that nagging feeling of wanting to be accepted by the other survivors. Pushing himself off the ground he began to trudge towards the caves, already cursing his decision.


	3. Chapter 3

Locke stared at the hatch intensely; it had to be something special, something that the island had wanted him to find, by following the false trail.

"Err… John?"

He looked behind him to see Boone standing there and he realised that he must have lost track of time. He stood up, smiling blissfully. "They obviously didn't come this way, we should get back to camp, see if Jack and Kate had any more luck." He quickly covered the hatch with fallen branches and began to walk back, Boone traipsing behind him.

"Do you think that they found Claire?"

"I don't know, we'll find out when we get back," he was barely listening to Boone; he was watching the darkening jungle around him, noticing the leaves of the trees, the clods of dirt on the floor. He had felt that he had returned home when they had crashed and since then the island appeared to be opening it's mysteries to him, one by one, welcoming him back with tantalizing new quests. This was the latest and he could already feel his soul being consumed by the need to complete it. After all, this could be the one that made his life worth-while, this could have been the purpose he had searched for, this could fix everything.

"Maybe we should have followed the other trail, once we knew Ethan didn't go down ours."

"Maybe."

They walked along in silence for another minute before Boone attempted conversation again, "I hope Ethan didn't hurt them."

Locke stopped moving, he hadn't thought about it. He had thought about it whilst trying to find them but had abandoned that quest and had forgotten that Charlie and Claire were in danger. He scolded himself internally; he would have to remember that he was still in the real world, still one of the survivors. Thinking about Charlie helped, Locke considered him a disciple in a way; he had helped Charlie to get over his drug habit and could possibly eventually amount to a friend. Locke smiled to himself at the thought; he'd have to make sure that happened, he found it hard to make friends and any he could gather were greatly appreciated.

"I hope so too."

Locke began to walk back to the beach again, Boone following in silence now. The moment he returned he could tell that something was wrong; people were quiet, many obviously still upset. He was about to ask someone what had happened when he saw a yellow blur whiz past him, attaching itself to Boone, who reeled slightly from the impact.

"Shannon, hey, what's wrong?" Boone sounded concerned as he placed his arms on her back, causing her to pull away sharply.

"I thought Ethan had got you as well."

"As well? As well as who?"

Shannon ignored Locke's question, the worry was fast disappearing from her face, becoming replaced with a cold anger.

"What were you doing out so late? What the hell were you thinking?"

Boone flashed a glance towards Locke before replying, "We were tracking Ethan. What happened?"

"He killed Charlie."

Locke's stomach fall, so much for his grand plan. He felt a pang of guilt; he'd been hunting with Ethan, he should have realised that something was wrong, if he had… Charlie might still be alive. But he'd let himself get so wrapped up in trying to convince Ethan to be a friend that he hadn't paid enough attention.

"What about Jack? Kate? Claire?"

"Claire's missing; the others are at the caves, starting an army."

Shannon's statement brought Locke back round, "an army?"

"Yeah, to go after Ethan or something." Her voice was filled with annoyance and Locke felt like he was interrupting her and Boone, wasn't welcomed. He walked away and began to head towards the caves, trying to work out a way to talk Jack out of creating his army.

When he got there, Jack was standing in the middle of a group, addressing those around him. There was a sharp intake of breath when people noticed that Locke had returned and the focus was suddenly switched to him. Jack walked over, approaching him.

"Where's Boone?"

"Back at the beach."

Jack nodded, obviously relieved, "Charlie's dead."

"I know."

"I'm going after Ethan."

"I know."

Jack turned to walk away again and Locke swallowed his fear and spoke up, "don't do it Jack. You shouldn't build an army."


	4. Chapter 4

Jack looked incredulously at Locke, his mind reeling from Locke's belief that he shouldn't build an army. It was his plan and he knew that it was the right thing to do, they had to get revenge. He decided to say so, hoping that Locke would be bought around by logic.

"We need to get revenge."

"That isn't revenge Jack. That's just hot-headedness."

Jack tried to work out why Locke would be against it, and settled on the reason that he hadn't been invited to join the army. "We need to get revenge."

"Think about it; we go running off into the jungle, unorganised, not a killer among us and you think that we could defeat Ethan, who probably isn't working alone, with nothing but some hunting knives?"

Locke's logic appeared to be sound but Jack wasn't ready to accept that he was right. "You weren't there. You didn't see Charlie's body. So don't tell me that I don't need an army!" He blinked back tears of frustration. He'd taken Charlie's death hard. It had been similar at the hospital, every patient he lost was a person who would never get to see the wonders of the world, was multiple ruined lives.

But the difference now was that he couldn't go home. He couldn't do as his father had suggested and turn on a humorous television program and leave work at work because now they were impossibly intertwined. Charlie was dead, and he couldn't get the thought out of his mind.

Locke had fallen silent, rubbing a hand on his temple. "I guess I can't stop you then."

Jack brushed past him, walking over and crouching near Sayid again, looking at his leg. "You know when you'll be able to fight?"

"Fight?"

"Yeah, I'm going after Ethan as soon as possible." Jack could see in Sayid's eyes that he was questioning the idea. Jack knew that he needed him, Sayid had been a soldier before and he had shown that he was able to do what other people couldn't if they captured an enemy. He held his breath, hoping that he would agree. Wouldn't be like Locke and deny him his dream.

"Okay," he didn't seem very happy at the idea but he looked tired, and Jack wondered if he even had the energy to decline. Jack nodded and left, going to fill up a water bottle when he heard someone talking behind him.

"So what's all this I hear about an army?"

Jack turned around, smiling to see Sawyer there. As much as Sawyer annoyed him, he couldn't deny that he had a desire to fight against anything and everything. "We're going to get revenge for Charlie."

"And how 'bout getting the pregnant girl back?"

His words caused Jack to falter slightly; he'd been so busy thinking about Charlie that he had forgotten about Claire, that she could be going through unknown tortures.

"Damn it," he muttered the words to himself, hoping that Sawyer hadn't heard and realised that he had left Claire out of his plan. He spoke louder; "of course we're going to rescue Claire. That's the point of this."

Sawyer shook his head, "seems to me like you're just going on a crusade."

"Why should it matter? Why does it matter that I want revenge?"

Sawyer's voice was more serious than Jack had ever heard him, "trust me. I know what it means to want revenge against someone."

He wondered what he had meant but decided that now was not the time to ask. He didn't want to alienate someone else who could help, "so you'll come with me? Get Claire back?"

"Yeah."

Jack nodded, not sure what else he was supposed to say when he remembered something, "how's Kate doing?"

"She's coping. From the looks of it she doesn't do well when she loses people she cares about."

"Nobody does well when that happens Sawyer."

"They can do."

Sawyer began to turn away and Jack decided not to stop him. The next part of his plan was going to be much harder work, he needed to get weapons for his fighters, and that meant talking to Locke.


End file.
